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Donald F. Malonson Led Wampanoags for Half Century

Monday, August 25, 2003 - 8:00pm

Long-Time Chief of Tribe Is Dead

Donald F. Malonson Led Wampanoags for Half Century

Donald F. Malonson, chief of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head
(Aquinnah), died peacefully at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston
on Friday, August 22, after a long illness. Mr. Malonson, also known as
Chief Running Deer, was the ceremonial leader of the tribe for more than
half a century.

He was the son of the late Minnie F. (Manning) Malonson of Gay Head
and was born on July 25, 1917, at the Manning homestead on How-Woss-Wee
Way. As a child, when not attending school or completing his chores, his
playground was the whole of Gay Head. He attended the one room Gay Head
schoolhouse and then continued on to the Tisbury School. He left high
school to work and as jobs became scarce on the Island in the early
1940s, he and his mother moved to the Boston area where he went to work
in the Charlestown Naval Yard.

While on his way to work the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Donald heard
that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. He left the trolley and went right
away to enlist before reporting to his job. He was sent to Camp Perry in
Virginia for training, and he shipped out of California with the 61st
United States Naval Construction Battalion to serve in the Pacific. He
traveled throughout the South Pacific and was honorably discharged on
Oct. 10, 1945.

Upon discharge, he decided to return to the Island and took up
residence in his family homestead. In 1951, Harrison Vanderhoop, Chief
No-Ho-No, stepped down and recommended his nephew, Donald, as his
successor as Chief of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head. For the next 52
years he would lead his people.

On August 18, 1951, he and Rachel P. Ryan were married at the
Community Baptist Church of Gay Head and they made their home at
How-Woss-Wee Acres for the next 40 years. During his lifetime he served
as a Gay Head selectman and was the driving force behind the
establishment of the Gay Head fire and police departments, and followed
by serving for years as fire warden and chief; during many of those
early years he also assumed the duties of police chief. He and Rachel
both served for many years as deputy sheriffs for the County of Dukes
County. During his lifetime he held a variety of jobs including
plumber's assistant, school bus driver for the Martha's
Vineyard Regional High School and automotive mechanic, to name a few.

He attended Community Baptist Church of Gay Head, where he carried
on the duties once held by his grandfather, Thomas Manning.

Chief Malonson was well known all over the Island, earning the
respect of all.

In a 1992 interview with the Vineyard Gazette's sister
publication, Martha's Vineyard Magazine, Chief Malonson spoke of
his connection to his community and of his tribe's rich heritage.

"I'm not political," he said. "The role of
the chief is to be a patriarch and attend to powwows and tribal
gatherings. More and more these days, if a tribe has a chief at all
he's a figurehead. They now have presidents and councils - I
represent the tribe, but stay out of the politics."

He continued, "We are a woodland people, but a fishing tribe.
Amos Smalley, a Gay Head Wampanoag, was the only man to ever actually
harpoon and kill a white whale, a 90-footer, somewhere off the Azores in
1902. And Tashtego, the second harpooner in Moby-Dick, was a Gay Head
Indian."

In 1967, the Gazette published a letter written by Chief Malonson to
an inquiring Northeastern University student who, as part of his
fraternity initiation, had written to ask the Wampanoag Indians how much
money they wanted for their land.

"You speak of a charge or price for our Island," Mr.
Malonson wrote in reply. "Charges and prices vary from time to
time but our Island remains as valuable as it always has been.

"Our Island, 20 miles long by seven miles wide is blessed with
all the essential elements of life. Combination of sun, moon, wind and
variable temperatures make for our healthy state of body and mind.

"Game, deer, rabbit, ducks and other waterfowl, not to mention
the fish which abound around our shores and freshwater streams.

"The soil of our Island can produce almost any kind of plant
you would want to cultivate. The rolling hills and plains are all farms
in the making."

He concluded: "In exchange for our Island we must have an area
of 40,000 acres with gently rolling hills, an area of plains, these with
good vegetation, stocked with wildlife, with freshwater streams free
from contamination. Supply of drinking water from driven wells. This
area to be near the ocean as many of our people are fishermen.

"Last but by no means least is a supply of natural colored
clay so we can carry on our fine honored art of pottery making.

"A request for friendly and understanding neighbors of course
goes without saying.

"When this area is found, you may contact me at this place.

"When the moon is at its brightest, I, with the people of the
tribe, will weigh the matter. The decision will be handed to me for you.

"Every voice will be heard. No leader's voice, voice of
the squaw, voices of every brave and maiden or the cry of the smallest
papoose shall go unheard.

"So I have spoken."

Chief Malonson was predeceased by his wife of 49 years, Rachel P.
(Ryan) Malonson and their sons, Horatio C. and Thomas R. He is survived
by his daughter, son in law and grandson, Bettina M. and Michael
Washington and Micah H., all of Waltham; his son, F. Ryan Malonson of
Aquinnah; daughter in law Liz O'Melvey of Cambridge; his sister,
Gladys Widdiss, of Aquinnah; sister in law Stella W. Hopkins of
Cambridge; nephews, Donald Widdiss of Chilmark, Carl Widdiss of
Aquinnah, William Kestenbaum of San Anselmo, Calif., Charles Hopkins of
Worcester, Thomas Hopkins of Boston; nieces, Dawn Lopes of Natick,
Kristina Kestenbaum of Aquinnah and Thea Gerwitz of Boston. He was also
predeceased by his nephew, Marc E. Widdiss. Chief Malonson is also
survived by his extensive tribal family and his many Island friends.

Interment services will be at noon on Thursday, August 28, at the
Gay Head Cemetery. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason
Funeral Home of Oak Bluffs.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made payable to the Deer-n-Dove
Scholarship Fund, Dukes County Savings Bank.